OFF! - First Four EPs

(Vice 2010)

Reviewed by NULL

To start this short review, I will simply give a few facts.

This is who OFF! be:

Keith Morris (early Black Flag / Circle Jerks) - Vocals

Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides) - Guitar

Steven McDonald (Redd Kross) - Bass

Mario Rubalcaba (Hot Snakes / Rocket From the Crypt) - Drums

  

As the title states, this is a collection of the first four vinyl EPs released by OFF! in 2010. 

 Not one of the these 16 tracks exceeds two minutes.

At 55 yrs old, Keith Morris and the boys have returned to show the MTV-PEPSI GENERATION-MALL RAT- FUCK-TWATS WHAT PUNK ROCK IS ALL ABOUT.

When I first put this CD on, I was filled with utter joy and happiness. It is a very welcome reminder that I am not alone; it restores my anger (motivated by love), and fills me with a humanity that TV, corporate entertainment, frequent encounters with moronic, thoughtless assumptions that are whispered and expounded around me on an almost daily basis. To me, this has always been the affect and purpose of thoughtful punk rock. However, though this is an “old-school-classic-early-80s style” of punk rock; it is not simply a nostalgia trip. This music is relevant, and sits perfectly in its time and place. Social consciousness is not a fad but a life long struggle despite what the editors of Rolling Stone magazine may want you to believe.

The passion and frustration erupts in leaps and bounds from this short and beautiful record. The lyrics are a little hard to grasp on the first go round, but when they start to sink in, the record just gets better and better. In the first track Keith screams “what the fuck!” as he ponders why his mind is filled with “Black Thoughts.”  Later, during, “I Don’t Belong” Keith sings of our society being, “drunk on hypocrisy…right-wing mentality, god and democracy, rep carpet loyalty” as he is “standing in the shadows and pissing in the punch bowl,” which immediately brings to mind the brilliant Chumbawumba song “When High Society Sits Down To Dine” from the album Un, in which they sing,  “When fine society sits down to dine, remember that someone is pissing in the wine, Pissing in the wine, pissing in the wine.” Ahh, it feels good to be among my people. 

By the time the 4^th track starts, the music is so energetic and catchy I come really close to “po-going” out the fucking window. We are barely four minutes into the goddamn record, as the singer addresses the question you may be asking at this point, “You wonder why I’m always  SCREAMING, you wonder why I talk so LOUD,…you wonder why I’m always SHOUTING, you wonder why I’ve gotta YELL - Cause you turned this into a living hell!” The world is definitely “Upside Down.”

Later, in “Poison City” we learn of the of “Toilets clogged with Blackwater,” an obvious reference to the war contractors in Iraq. However, is he singing about Iraq or Los Angeles? The gap becomes smaller every day.

     
In “Now I’m Pissed” we hear about the system “building a better tomorrow for us, but the money’s not there,” then he asks “Who’s in charge? Who’s running this zoo?” He then reaches into his pockets to pay the rent, and finds only lint. The song ends with the singer shouting, ”Now, I’m Pissed.” Is it a warning or a call to arms as the populous begins to understand that they are constantly getting fucked; in all the dreams and promises of our great nation the hard reality is home foreclosures and unemployment as our benevolent leader is handed the Nobel Peace Prize. Which leads us into the track “Killing Away,” which feels like a sequel to the Circle Jerks’ “Killing for Jesus” and “Making The Bombs,” in which we, “Keep on repeating the Past!” 

There are also more personal songs like “Panic Attack.” In an interview, Keith talked about this song, he said it was inspired by the fact that at his age he finds himself waking up in the middle of the night in a panic, thinking “Why am I here!?” I guess some demons never die. He even has a great little song about his place and history in punk rock, it's kinda sweet. 

I won’t go through every track on the album. In the time it has taken you to read this review the album is already half over. I will reiterate that this is one of the greatest records I have heard this year, and I am sure it will show up on my “best of 2011” list. I just can’t get enough of it. And sure, Keith Morris has never been a great poet but he has often had important things to say in a very direct way, in fact, some of the songs on this album have very minimal lyrics, but that only makes them more powerful. Even though there is a lot of anger on the record and even a great song called “Fuck People” -  it is like all great punk rock - a humanizing effort. And I apologize for not speaking much of the other members of the band who I am fairly unfamiliar with, but let it be known, the band knows exactly what it is doing, and executes super catchy and energetic punk rock as good as any I have ever heard.  And thankfully, it is not over-produced!

If you feel a need to pop the painful zit of our diseased society, then pop that fucker with this brilliant album! It is wonderful reminder that makes my heart glow with the brotherhood and sisterhood of humanity; it reminds us that the common realities of our lives such as poverty, corporate control, dehumanization, and war are not to be accepted as part of our lives, but that they remain and have always been un-fucking-acceptable.

 The only negative criticism I have of the release is that there are only lyrics to five songs in the booklet. I am still having a hard time figuring out a few lines but hopefully they will come to me as I embark on my 160^th listen. I love this record.